


numbers game

by drowsilybearzerk



Category: Phantasy Star Online 2
Genre: Gen, Government Agencies, Long Lost/Secret Relatives, Math and Science Metaphors, Siblings, The Inherent Corruption of Regius-era ARKS
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-02
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-13 07:40:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29149854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drowsilybearzerk/pseuds/drowsilybearzerk
Summary: in mathematics, affine geometry is what remains of Euclidean geometry when forgetting the metric notions of distance and angles.
Relationships: Afin & Euclyta (Phantasy Star Online 2)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	numbers game

Every year on their birthday, Euclyta and Afin would sit as still as children could as their parents took a picture of them. For Afin, this was very still, though Euclyta was the eternal rebel and would usually sow chaos just as their father clicked the button, resulting in an endless collection of blurry photos, squinted eyes, and in one year a photo of them both on the ground, mid-tickle attack. 

Until at 7, Euclyta was kidnapped. Until their parents died. Now all Afin had were those pictures. He was old enough to have the vaguest memories of having a family that loved him, and yet nothing but photographs of which to identify them.

(His foster family was by no means cruel, and he loved them -- but he felt left behind. Eucie wasn’t dead, he knew that, as much as Regius and ARKS tried to tell him otherwise. But she was existing somewhere in the universe without him.)

When at 10, Afin was first entered his permanent home, they’d asked him what his birthday was. ( _They asked all sorts of things -- his favorite color, his favorite food, did he like any movies or books, what kind of bedding did he want for his room?_ ) He told them it was April 1st, because the birthday he shared with Euclyta was March 31st, and it didn’t feel right celebrating that day without her.

It didn’t feel right, and it felt like a joke beside. So. April 1st.

At 13, he’s popular enough in class, but not so popular that anyone questions when he doesn’t hang out with them after school. Between school, dinner, and the hour a day everyone in the household had free to spend together, he poured over news reports from his ship, from other ships, even standard newsletters, like events on Lillipa or Naverius. If Euclyta was out there, someone would find her. If no one else, Afin would. ( _He’d long given up the idea that she could only ever be in the same space as him. He would have found her by then if she was. Afin couldn’t fathom the distance, but she was somewhere._ )

( _ARKS had long since stopped replying to his inquiries. They insisted on their version of the story -- **Euclyta was dead. There was no woman found who matched Afin’s description.**_ )

At 14, Afin hit a dead end. 7 years and no leads from publicly available information. He wondered if Euclyta was looking for him, too, and if she was being told the same story. There was no woman that day. That Afin was dead. Their story was flat, two-dimensional, but infinite.

At 15, Afin dedicated himself to joining ARKS. He tested with an aptitude for ranged weaponry, which worked out because as determined as he was, he was still scared. (His family was good to him, kind to him, patient, and at 15 it was for them, too -- but goodness and kindness only helped calm his fears after the fact, not chase away the nightmares entirely.) Afin was never good at math, which made him think that Eucie would’ve been great at it. It felt like the longer time went on, the less Afin remembered from that day, but he remembered that they were opposites. When he was calm, she was heated. When he was scared, she was brave. He felt certain in his decision that she would be great at math.

At 16, Afin had passed enough classes to start his pre-requisites to join ARKS. This would be the first year he had left his home, his new family. Operatives didn’t live with the civilians, which never quite made sense to Afin, but this was what he had to do. He would have packed alone, but his younger siblings -- born after he’d been adopted, when his new parents assumed they couldn’t have kids -- insisted on helping. It’d be the first time he’d stay in a room that was only meant for him -- his parents had gotten a second bed, for when Eucie came home. 

_When_ , he remembered them saying, not if. Slices of birthday cake left out for a girl who hadn’t come home, presents stashed away, and even if they weren’t his biological parents (Afin had long let go of the term  _ real parents _ , because they loved him in a way that was real) they’d supported him since the beginning. They’d keep Eucie’s bed open, they’d told him. And ring him if she visited here first, they’d continued, just in case she didn’t run straight to ARKS headquarters to see her brother.

(Would Eucie feel betrayed that he’d replaced their parents with these new ones? No, he decided. She wouldn’t. She would’ve taken longer to come around, at least openly, but she would have.)

At 17, Afin and Euclyta had lived parallel lives for years. Afin had been taught that, in mathematics, parallel lines never crossed, never met. But they were flesh and blood, not theory, not numbers. At 17, he formally became an ARKS operative.

At 17 and with some help, Afin found Euclyta, and he found out just how different their lives had been. That was okay. It hurt -- that she was hurting, that she’d been through everything, being a Dark Falz, being whisked away from home -- that she was alone. But it hurt no more than the idea of their family being separated again. Afin forced their paths to cross, again and again, until she could come home.

**Author's Note:**

> i blame mey and ellie for me writing this.
> 
> i wrote this under the headcanon that euclyta and afin are twins. if they aren't, don't tell me, i don't wanna know, and i'll repress the memory.
> 
> that being said! the birthday i gave them is the same as rené descartes! he was also born march 31st, and he developed analytic geometry, which focused on translating geometry into algebra.
> 
> i always kind of wonder what the parents are like for ARKS operatives. i think that afin and euclyta must have been loved, if they were still safe before apprentice and gemini snatched them up.


End file.
